It seems just like yesterday that I was watching the successful landing of our beloved Curiosity on Mars. Well, it has been a year already. Here’s to many more successful years of giving us breakthrough observations from our red neighbor!

Below, I have provided you with a video (not mine!) of a recap of what this curious rover has been up to for the past year!

You are making a study guide for an upcoming test in class and you find great information in a book at the library. You “pinch” the text in the book and move it to your laptop display and – BOOM!- all the text is now on your computer. Awesome!

This is what I hope our future technology holds for us and it doesn’t seem like a far off reality.

For a couple years now, I’ve been interest in Pranav Mistry‘s Sixth Sense Technology. Now, I hope to see it go mainstream!

If you are on your way to the airport and you are concerned about delays, you wouldn’t even have to turn your phone on to check the status of the flight, just whip out the ticket!

This technology connects to the cloud and it utilizes search engine application program interfaces (APIs).

Interestingly enough, this technology is open source. Check it out here!

The two leading smartphones of 2013 so far have been crowned. The Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC one are both incredible pieces of hardware. Both feature glorious high def screens, excellent specs and great cameras. The winner of the race, however boils down to personal preferences. Mr. and Mrs. Geek have made their picks. Read on to find out which one they chose.

Mrs. Geek- The Samsung Galaxy S4

My husband and I have chosen our favorite, and this time we had to agree to disagree. I have chosen the Galaxy S4 as my smartphone of the year so far. The 5 inch screen is a spectacular Super AMOLED screen is a sight to behold. The blacks are clear and crisp and the colors are bright and inviting.

The US version of the phone sports 2 GHz of RAM, a snappy Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 Quad-core 1.9 GHz processor and an unparalleled 13 Megapixel camera. I personally use my phone’s camera more than any other function, short of making phone calls themselves. The camera on the S4 takes truly breathtaking photos in natural light or with flash. The phone stumbles with low-light conditions but when taking pictures with it in the proper light it’s quality is second to none. Using nothing but the default camera settings pictures turned out clear and full of bright colors and natural contrast.

Switching between home screens can feel a bit sluggish at times, but the phone does an amazing job at packing the most bang for your buck into an incredibly small package. The S4 does not have the same all metal looks of the HTC one, but for my money the screen and the camera make up for the poly-carbonate construction.

Mr. Geek- HTC One

My loving wife has chosen the Samsung Galaxy S4 for her pick, but for my needs it has to be the HTC one.

The HTC one has a slightly smaller screen at 4.7″ and a 1.7 GHz quad core snapdragon 600., but it never feels slow or sluggish. Zooming around the 5 home screens and app drawer always feels quick and responsive. There is no love lost here, as HTC has given Android 4.1, Jellybean, a fast and light makeover with their newest version of sense. It no longer feels over bearing or forced. Some of the changes to stock Android can be frustrating, like not being able to remove blink feed for example, but all in all sense seems to make much more sense.

The phone is just beautiful with it’s aluminum uni-body construction and top-shelf construction. There is no cheap plastic feel here folks! This thing is built like a tank, and made to look dead sexy doing it. Even the speaker grills add to the over all high end look of the device. I have only had 5 great loves in my life, my mother, my wife, our two kids, and this phone. No matter what check boxes I enable on Mrs. Geek, I can’t make her singing sound any better.

It is hard to believe a cell phone can sound this good without external speakers. It’s sad that it took manufacturers this long to figure out that putting large speakers on the front of the phone would result in better sound quality.

I very rarely take pictures with my phone, so camera quality is of little concern to me, but the HTC One takes respectable pictures in every type of light.

As a bit of an audio file, I have to give my pick to the HTC One.

Conclusion:

Both phones are excellent devices. There is no other Android phone that comes close to this clear winners, but which one is best for you is ultimately up to your unique usage case. You can’t go wrong with either one, but make sure you know what your priorities are.

I was thinking yesterday: Is there a limit to “the latest and greatest” technology and will we ever get to the point where there isn’t anymore discoveries to be made in the means of “future” technology.

It is interesting to think about future inventions and discoveries that we have never dreamed about in today’s golden age of technology. But, possibilities are endless.

Think about it. The invention of the television was a spectacular invention that enabled people far from each other to watch things like the first man on the moon. This is something I think about from time to time and I fathom the possibilities and conjure up some awesome future inventions that would shrink the intellectual attraction of modern technology we see today.

With this idea, we need an ever changing way to see life in general to scope out these new discoveries.

Are we really that advanced?

Don’t get me wrong, I believe we will never see scientists throw up the white flag. Discoveries in space and the recent Mars Curiosity rover project is quite impressive to me. I’m very ecstatic to see this milestone in my lifetime. In terms of space exploration, I don’t think there will ever be an end.

There is a new technology that has taken my breathe away and I will fill you in on that in a later post….

My husband and I are both geeks. I love astronomy and I’m obsessed with the in’s and out’s of the functionality of computer towers and laptops. In fact, it’s my job!

After landing such a technological (..and fun!) job, I’ve decided to take on my own project. So, I’ve created 220 Tech Shop and boy do I have big plans and with that The Geek Speak was born. A blog about the ramblings of a geek couple with interests and knowledge of all things gadget and the latest in technology!